The Emporia weekly news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1881-1889, 1887-10-13
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The POLITICAL 0OGmaLlSm winch as
8erts that suffrage b natural right,
and that government rests upon CON
sent, has naturally led to a vigorous
demand for the acknowledgment of
woman. If the premises are granted
the argument is conclusive. If voting 1
Is a natural right, then everybody has |
the same right to vote that. he has to
exist, and the Acknowledgement Of
women, minors, aliens, paupers, and
is indefensible tyranny. |
If government rests upon the consent |
Of the governed, then all who are gov
erned are entitled to express their as
sent or dissent, by the ballot, upon |
questions affecting liberty, property, or |
life.
But If suffrage is privilege confer |
red from considerations OF eXpedlen-
cY, and if government rests primarily
and ultimately upon force, then there
is q rational and satisfactory explana-
ton of the universal exclusion by all
nations of women, children, and other
dependent classes from participation in
legislation and politics. 1t is not a
question of Intelligence or morals.
There are infants of twenty years who
could vote more wisely and with great
or advantage to the state than many
registered electors of half century.
MultitudeS of educated and patriotic
women could be more safely intrusted
with the ballot than the bloody thugs;
repeaters, and assassins who have for
a generation made elections in the
South, and in Baltimore, Chicago,
Cincinnati, New York and other cities,
shameless and brutal parodies, and
have built intolerable deSpotlsmS upon
the ruins of public liberty.
But the supreme crisis in the life of
the state comes when its laws are ViO-
lated and its energies assaulted by COM
binations too formidable to be over
come by pacific agencies. Then only
the final appeal to force remains; the
beak, the talon, and the thunderbolt,
which are the emblems of national au-
thority. And thus the state has al
ways confided the control and direction
of its powers to those who eau enforce
| its decreeeS. The most passionate
pleader for female suffrage has never
affirmed that women would make val
liable judges, public executioners,
guards, jaiiers, policemen, militia, or
regular soldiers. The contention is
that they should be permitted to enact
laws and formulate policies, whose en-
| forcement, if resisted, should be left
entirely to the other sex, against whose
| Judgment they may have been decided
i at the polls.
The dogma that suffage is a natural
| right, has no support either IN eX-
| perience. Suffrage Is privilege, con-
| ditioned upon such citizens as are con-
sidered most likely to aid in the &C
complishment of the fundamental OBJ
| jectS for which government Is eStab-
| lished: the diffusion of civil rights and
political equality, with efficient and
vigorous guarantees for the protection
of life, the security of property, and
the preservation Of personal liberty.
| The decision is necessarily arbitrary,
and not susceptible of accurate de-
| finition. 1t expresses the ultimate
| Judgment, and reflects the final con-
VictionS of the state as a political
entity, upon the essential conditions of
its own existence.
Thomas jefferson, the father of
modern Democracy, borrowed his ideas
| of the social contract from Rousseau
| lieVed that the state of nature was the
| ideal condition of man, and that num-
beers would ultimately prevail against
| intelligence, duty, and justice. His
| dreamy imagination was captivated by
| their vague phrases and imperfect gen.
1 civilizations. He had no conception OF
| the moral forces which give nation
strength, duration, and grandeur. He
| failed to comprehend the supreme Obll-
| CATION of law as the bond which unites
| society, superior to the will of individ-
ualS and the discomfort of minOritieS,
capable of executing its statutes, re-
| pressing injustice, and preserving its
! autonomy. The rule of action for
states, as for men, is obedience to law.
| The doctrine that just governments de-
rive their powers from the consent OF
the governed in the Jeffersonian phrase
| OlOgY, is an imperfect statement OF
| fact. 1t is the truth, but not the whole
truth and nothing but the truth. In
the last analysis all governments, the
l lust and the unjust, rest, not upon con-
sent, but upon force. So long as in
diViduals submit to the laws, and mi
norities consent to the decision of ma
jorities, SD long government rests upon
consent. but no longer: Ii the citizen
violates no edict or ordinance he con-
sents to be governed; but if he commits
murder, or refuses to pay taxes. behind
the law stands the sheriff, the posse,
the militia, the army and navy of the
United States.
The South, in 1861, endeavOred tC
act upon the theory that government
rests upon the consent of the governed
Dissatisfied with the lawful expression
of the will of the majority at the polls
they refused to consent to the admins
tratiOn of the government by the Re.
Abraham Lincoln. They were logical
but the reverberating thunder of the
guns of Grant at DOnelSon, VickSburg
and AppOmattOx refuted their fata
SyIlOgism, and the Proclamation OF
Emancipation disposed of the fal
lacious rhetoric of the composer of The
Declaration of Indeper dence. Had
this government rested upon the con
sent of the governed, slavery would moi
have been abolished, nor would the
eleven seeded states have returned tt
the Union. Like the kingdom OF
heaven, the Union suffered violence
| and the violent took it by force. Nc
Confederate leader has ever admitted
that slavery was wrong, or that the
Calhoun Interpretation of the COnstitu
tion was incorrect. The most penitent
of the pl Odigal SONS appeaseS his con
science by the guarded admission thai
the South accepts in good faith the
results of the war"
Politics is the metaphysics of force
The rule of the majority is still the
rule of the strongest. But modern so
J ciety has agreed to determine thu
question of supremacy by counting in
stead of by fighting. Mathematics has
been substituted for muscle; compute
ton for war. We count yea on ont
side and nay on the other, and call il
A
derlies the ballot-bOx and the battle
field. The appeal from the ballot t
the bullet remains. The North ha(
Emuch greater reason to be dissatisfied
with the election of Cleveland in 1888
than the South with that of Lincoln il
1860. There were more imminent dan
gers of bloodshed and civil war in the
disputed election of 1876 than have
ever been disclosed. The principal &C
tors in that tragedy have been silent
aud its secret history has never beer
written. Had the seat of government
been in New York instead of Wash
ingtOn, and less resolute Executive
than Grant been Chief
the final verdict of the Electoral Com
mission might not have been recorded
In considering the wisdom or ex.
pediency of enlarging the voting classes
in this country by compelling all the
states peremptorily to confer suffrage
upon all women, under penalty of for
feiting representation in Congress and
the Electoral College. as is proposed by